1. Home
  2. ⏣ General Metalworking
  3. Clausing cross slide

Clausing cross slide

After a long search I finally located a standard compound with the top and bottom slides for a 1300 Clausing I've had sitting around for a year. When I found the lathe it it had a dual post type cross slide without a compound. Anyway, the new bottom slide did not come with a gib. No problem, (I thought), I'll just use the tapered gib from the original slide. Well the dovetail on the new slide seems to be about

0.0085" narrower than the original and the gib from the old slide won't go in far enough to use the gib screw. I'm basing the 0.0085" on the fact that the gib tapers 0.230" in thickness from the wide end to the narrow end, it's 15.75" in length and it sticks out 0.583" farther than it should when snug. I'd like to verify the dovetail width difference with a measuring tool, but the inner and outer edges of the dovetail are not good reference surfaces making it hard to measure. What's the best way to measure and compare the two tapered dovetails? I have a surface plate and some ground drill rod slightly smaller in diameter than the height of the dovetail, maybe I can lay the slide carrige face down on the surface plate and measure between two drill rods at two fixed locations? I have a HSS dovetail cutter the correct size to widen the dovetail, but I need to see if the dovetail is flame hardened. I could send the gib out to have it ground thinner, perhaps on a magnetic sine plate. Ideas? Hate to mess up a perfectly good cross slide made of unobtanium.
Reply to
oldjag
Loading thread data ...

You might be able to copy the gib taper by clamping some bar stock to it and milling the top flat. If it's like the gibs on my South Bend the bevels on the edges aren't critical, only the lengthwise wedge taper.

A few months ago I refitted the compound gib to clean up decades of student abuse. As you noticed they are difficult to measure accurately. I tried short plugs cut from drill rod but the rough finish of the flat in the female dovetail threw it off.

Eventually I found most of the wear to be in the bottom of the compound. After surface-grinding it and hand stoning the gibs they could be adjusted for nearly constant drag through the full travel.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

oldjag wrote: I'd like to verify the dovetail

That is exactly the procedure.`

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

That's a great idea for copying the existing part. I called Clausing today on the odd chance they might still have them on hand. Turns out they did, and in 4 thicknesses too. Only issue was the price, about $150.00. But I ordered one anyway...guessing by the time I cut one from bar oil hardening bar stock, mill it to rough size, harden it and get it ground to finish size it's going to cost me almost as much. Kinda suprised they had them..mostly they just have fasteners, bearings,and some handles etc. for this machine. The corner angles are critical on these gibs to give full engagement on the dovetail.

Reply to
oldjag

I think that the gibs are cast iron, not O1. The gibs on my Clausing

5914 certainly are CI, judging by the way those gibs behave when saw and file are used wile fitting the new gibs to the machine.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.